Why Use Social Media Signals and How They Impact Search Engine Ranking

Did you think that social media is only a networking medium to bring people to your blog? Of course, you use the social media signals on your blog posts to tell people how popular it is, but did you know that it also impacts your search engine ranking?

I wasn’t that convinced until I read this post of today’s guest, who is a top blogging coach and a freelance writer too. He teaches the bloggers and entrepreneurs the skills to create a lasting Internet business.

So, please welcome Theodore Nwangene, who’s here to show us a different perspective of the social media that we use on a daily basis.

I’m really excited about the new tips he’s given in this post that would help me better promote my blog posts, and who doesn’t want to achieve better search engine rankings too! Without much ado, over to him.

My name is Theodore Nwangene and I’m so excited to be a guest at Aha!NOW today. I’m not going to waste your time with my introduction, so here’s my post that will help your blog be successful.

In this post, I want to share with you the importance of social media as far as search engine is concerned and how to start leveraging it starting from now.

This will boost your rankings in the search engine result pages (SERPs), and also your blog traffic and revenue!

Social Media and SEO

I’m sure you know what SEO stands for and how important it is for your blog. If you’re one of those people that always condemn SEO then, I will advice that you stop right now.

Instead, start mastering how it works and if you can cool down and learn it – you will regret ever talking bad about it.

However, in her post, Ana Hoffman made it clear that SEO is dead. This may be true in some ways but, what I will say is that SEO is no longer what it used to be.

A lot of things have changed as far as SEO is concerned. I will never advice anyone to fully focus on the search engines for his or her traffic today because, anything can happen any day.

But still, SEO is very necessary.

The best thing now is to focus on quality first and the search engines will willingly favor you. Also, try and diversify your traffic sources as soon as possible if you’re still relying on the search engines alone.

Years ago, the search engines like Google, Bing and the rest of them used the number of links pointing to a site to determine the quality of the site. But today, all that is gone and even Matt Cutts made it clear that link building is dead and this is because there are now many ways through which one can get those links in a spammy way.

Normally, people link to a blog post they find interesting as a way to vote in favor of such a site. This makes the search engines regard and reward such a site by ranking it high above its competitors.

But link building has lost its value today because of the way people are going about it.

It will now interest you to know that the search engines have found other ways of measuring the quality and popularity of a site, and one of the ways is by monitoring a site’s Social Media Signals.

Most bloggers always see the search engines and social media as two different things.

But if you really want to start seeing tremendous results from your search engine optimization efforts, you need to start seeing them as the same thing.

I want you to understand that SEO, social media, and content marketing are all under the umbrella of Organic Marketing and as such, there is no need to separate them for any reason.

What is The Relationship Between Social Media and the Search Engines

I’m happy you asked this question – let me to briefly explain this to you.

Like I mentioned above, the days of link building as a way to rank a webpage on the search engines are over, though the search engines are still using it. But that’s only when the link is coming from an authority and reputable site.

Social media signals have now become another way through which the search engines measure the authority of a webpage and I don’t think this will end soon.

So, if you’re not effectively promoting your business blogs on the social media yet, you have to start doing so now. That’s because like I said, social signals have become the fastest ranking factor and those that fail to notice this will be left out.

Furthermore, social media optimization has become a very important factor in search engine optimization. This is because Google, Bing, and the other search engines are now using the recommendation of social network users to determine the quality of a site and how high to rank it in the search engine result pages.

When a blog post is shared by or liked by a user on a social media, it counts as a vote for the quality of the blog post, and the search engines will use this vote to properly rank websites in the search engine result pages.

4 Social Media Signals Search Engines Usually Take into Account

There are four basic things that the search engines usually focus more on when analyzing the social media signals of a webpage:

1. The number of Facebook likes and shares that the webpage has

2. The number of tweets and retweets the webpage has

3. The authority of the person tweeting the webpage

4. The total number of Google +1’s the webpage has

As you can see, the whole thing boils down to the number of people that shared, tweeted, liked and +1ed your posts.

The best way to get a good number of it is by connecting and building some solid relationship with other bloggers. And also, by sharing their blog posts because the more you share theirs, the more they will also share yours. It’s a win-win game I guess :).

It’s also very advisable to connect with some of the influencers in your niche because the authority of the person that tweeted your blog post is of utmost importance.

Some time ago, Neil Patel announced that Moz’s blog post (Beginner guide to SEO) went viral and also went very high on the search engine result pages, after Smashing Magazine tweeted it.

So you see, that’s why it’s important to connect with some influencers that have lots of followers. When they tweet and share your contents, their huge followers will continue retweeting because of the respect and trust they have for the person.

So, what are you waiting for? I think it’s time you start connecting with more people now. But do you really know how to get the best out of your social media marketing? Read on…

How to Get the Best Out of Your Social Media Marketing

Anything worth doing is worth doing well, and for you to get the best out of anything in life, the first step is always to master the best ways and strategies to go about it.

You can achieve this by finding out what’s working for other people. Below are the methods I’ve discovered that might work for you.

1. Research has shown that adding an image to your social postings can increase engagement by 200%.

So, it’s very necessary to always try and ensure that you have a good image attached to your social media postings.

2. It’s also good to try and be active on the social media.

I know that you cannot be active on all the social media networks out there. But you can focus more on the ones that gives you the best results.

It’s also said that Google plus impacts ranking more than Facebook and Twitter so, I will urge you to spend more of your time there and get involved in some of the communities.

3. Know when best to share your web pages on the social media.

Research also showed that the best days to share a webpage on the social media is on Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays at 9am, 12pm, 3pm and 6pm depending on your own time zone. I don’t know if this is true but, you can try it and see for yourself.

4. Ask questions on your social media profiles.

This is because social users are 21% more likely to engage with a good question.

5. Encourage readers to share your contents.

The best ways to encourage your readers to share your contents is by making sure you have social sharing buttons on your blog posts and also, ask them to share it with their friends.

6. Conduct a contest on your blog once in a while.

If you really want to tremendously boost your social media engagements then one of the best things to do is to throw out an interesting contest on your blog. You can ask my friend Enstine Muki how best to do this as he is very good at it.

7. ‘How to’ and ‘List posts’ tend to get lots of social shares if the article is interesting and engaging enough.

So, it’s good to write this type of post once in a while.

Finally, I want you to understand that being social is the best way to amplify your online presence. Even if you didn’t learn any other thing here today, I also want you to know that social media is indeed very critical to your search engine rankings.

So, the earlier you start using social media to effectively boost your brand awareness and SEO, the better for you and your business.

Now, I will like you to take the discussion further via the comment section. What do you think about this post and do you have anything to add here?

Before I end, I’d like to thank Harleena. In fact, one of the best New Year gifts I got this year was Harleena’s invitation to share my knowledge with you guys and I see that as a great honor.

My advice to you is to always stick to aha-now.com because this blog is really exceptional. It’s one of a kind, and my only regret is that I didn’t get to know it on time when I started blogging but, I’m happy I finally did. Harleena is the real deal :).Thanks a bunch!

Over to You –

Do you take the social media signals as the alternative to link building and as a measure of your site’s popularity? Do you think social media signals affect your search engine rankings? Which social media do you use most for marketing? Share your tips in the comments.

Join our list

Subscribe to our mailing list and get interesting stuff and updates to your email inbox.

We respect your privacy and take protecting it seriously

About the author

Theodore Nwangene

Theodore Nwangene is a blogger and internet marketer who started his online venture in 2011 and since then, he has gathered lots of amazing experiences as far as making a living from the internet is concerned. Visit his blog where he shares useful tips on how to build successful internet business based on his own experience.

86 Comments - Read and share thoughts

You’re welcome Firdaus, I’m pretty happy you enjoyed the post and also agreed with my points. Thanks a bunch for stopping by and, do have a splendid new week.

Firdaus

2014-03-11 at 6:18 pm

Hello Theodore,

I deeply read your all points and believe me I am totally agree with all of your points. I like using Google plus. Thanks a lot brother for providing such a nice information.

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-20 at 3:35 am

You’re highly welcomed Donna, Its good to know that you enjoyed the post. Social media is indeed very important and yes, I’m also enjoying Adrienne’s daily questions and I’m also thinking of starting something like that.

I always loved to be a part of social media. Good thing because I have to use it wisely in order for those bots to find me!

When on this platform, I not only like it, but also leave a good comment on it when it is from someone else. This sparks engagement.

Asking a question is the best by far. Look at all the engagement Adrienne Smith has by her question of the day and being consistent with it! I must say I’m giving that one priority lately. But I do have to give all the credit to Adrienne because she showed us how to do it effectively.

Yes, agreed, we do need a dash of SEO in our content, but our shares and activity on social media these days carries us so far.

Thank you for your wonderful tips and also for sharing the link to Enstine Muki because “contests” are on my list of to-dos and I do need some training on that one!

What a great share and so nice to see you here at Harleena’s blog. She’s picking some really great guests to share their expertise with us and I so enjoyed this particular post.

I know that when Google shared with us that our social media sites would be showing up in the search engines that was definitely a sign that social media would be ranking now. It wasn’t any longer about keyword research although I know that does still help. I know that it will never die or the search engines wouldn’t be able to survive.

I appreciate what you shared about everything that it takes in order to get your social sites ranked and of course your content as well. I know that some sites are doing better than others while some are lagging behind and trying to catch up.

I’m still in love with Twitter though and it’s been a little harder to get going with Google+ but I’ll get there. I need to just visit more places and find the information I want to share and the people I want to connect with. This is a great wake up call for me as this year starts and I can always start now right!

Thank you Theodore and hope you both have an amazing week. Appreciate you having him this month Harleena.

~Adrienne

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-20 at 3:31 am

I’m already blushing Adrienne,

I don’t know what else to say because, the kinds words you used here are too much for me:) but, thanks a lot.

Yea, its now very obvious that social media signals has become an integral part of search engine rankings and its good we start responding to that.

Of cause, I know you’re a big user of twitter and I love it too. I’m not also finding it easy with Google+ but like you, I will also get there:).

I totally agree with you on this one, Beside being a huge source of traffic generation social media website can have an impact of your search engine ranking and will have more weight in the future, the most obvious reason is because Google already own a social media website which is Google+, although Google+ is a little bit confusing to use specially for the first time however I do recommend using it, if you go to Google webmaster tool it will show you how Google pluses of your posts have impacted your search engine results.

The idea for Google is very simple, in future you will be able to see results from website or authors that you already know and trust, how Google would know, because of your previous social interaction with each website.

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-20 at 3:26 am

You welcome Qasim, I’m glad you agree with me on this. Google plus is really confusing as you said and I also found it difficult when I started using it but, you will only get used to it overtime.

Thanks Theodore for the great information. And thanks Harleena for having him. I do use twitter, FB and G+. However my twitter account has gotten hacked into, and still haven’t gotten that fixed and straighten out. Glad to know that I am doing the right things. Have a great day and thanks again for the wisdom. Debbie

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-18 at 4:26 am

Hi Debbie, Welcome to my post, it also feels good to have you here and I’m glad you agreed with my points.

Thanks a lot for the visit and have a wonderful week. I pray you resolve your hacked twitter account soon.

I stopped worrying about SEO sometime ago (well, I was just not into it, because it seemed like a boring task, so I was glad when search engines changed their algorithms :D).

One of the things I am trying to do right now is get more social shares (so, more visibility for my blog). In terms of sharing, I think I need to expand my territory (okay, that sounds weird).

Anyways, I just stick with the same folks (which is great, but I already have a good relationship with then). So, I am going to try and reduce the sharing I do for my friends, and share more outside my own circle. In short, try and expand my sharing circle 😀

Hopefully that will work out as planned 🙂 Anyways, thank you for the tips, Theo 🙂 And thanks to Harleena for having you here!

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-18 at 4:24 am

Welcome Jeevan, I’m happy to have you here too and I’m also glad that you like my post. Its good to build more connections indeed because, it will also widen your reach and boost your social media presence too.

Thanks for coming.

Uday Ghulaxe

2014-02-17 at 7:40 pm

Once your post is publish promote it on various social media sites such as facebook, twitter, google+, pininterest and all other social media. Social media is one of the best way to drive traffic to your blog .Promote your post on other blogs by blog commenting. Social media promotion will increase blog traffic in a really amazing way. Promoting on the socia media is one of the best way to to increase blog traffic and as the google updates they are going to rank high such sites which have high social media values.

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-20 at 3:13 am

You’ve actually said it all Uday, Thanks a lot for adding such an awesome comment here. I’m happy you like the post.

I agree with you that social media sharing has benefit, but I do question whether it has an impact on SEO. The reason I question your reasoning is the article you linked to in Search Engine Journal seems to say just the opposite: that Google was having too difficult a time crawling Facebook and Twitter so gave up trying to factor social sharing in its search results.

Your suggestions to increase social sharing are solid. There really isn’t a downside to social sharing, it can increase direct traffic whether or not it increases search traffic. Thanks so much for sharing your pointers here at Aha-Now.

Theodore Nwangene

2014-02-18 at 4:21 am

Hello Carolyn, Thanks a lot. Aha-now is an awesome community and I’m also happy you stopped by to read my post:), thanks for that.

Yea, social media signals do impacts search engine rankings in so many ways and, you can also check out the other link I included on the post by Neil Petal to read more of this.

1. Kindly add your personal blog/website link only, 2. Do not use links in the body of the comment, 3. Please use your real name, 4. Make the comment relevant and meaningful. Your comment may not be approved if it does not follow these conditions. Thanks